Staying the course is best plan of attack

Raptors have few areas that they need to improve before playoff run gets underway

The stretch run to the NBA playoffs begins now, with the Toronto Raptors in a different place than they have ever been. And nothing they do or say should change one iota.

The regular season begins again Thursday after the all-star break — the Raptors play again Friday at home against Milwaukee — with Toronto nursing a two-game lead atop the Eastern Conference. It is the best position they’ve been in for the final 25-game sprint to the post-season.

And the worst thing they can do is treat it as anything special.

Since the season began before last Halloween, Raptors coach Dwane Casey and his players have been trying to make incremental improvements so they would be in top shape going into late April. Despite a 41-16 record today, they know there are things to get better at:

They have to try to become an even more proficient three-point shooting team, even if they have one of the most effective overall offences in the league.

That could be by being more selective in the three-pointers they take, by discouraging some players from taking as many and just by hoping good shooters shoot better. With a 35.7-per-cent efficiency, the Raptors are 19th in the league.

They have to remain relatively injury free, which is a function of good fortune as much as anything. But limiting the minutes of key stars like DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry could mitigate the chance of a serious, crippling injury.

The starting guards are near career lows in minutes played — DeRozan, at 34 minutes a game, hasn’t played that little since his rookie season and Lowry is averaging more than five minutes fewer this season than he did in 2016-17.

And they have to find a way to be more efficient late in close games. The Raptors have won more than their fair share of blowouts and have seldom lost in one-sided fashion, but their11-12 record in games decided by six or fewer points is troubling.

One of the more interesting aspects to Toronto’s chase of the East’s top seeding — it would be the first in franchise history — is the notion that they’re bring disrespected because they are not being chatted about daily by the continent’s major media outlets.

Two points: That’s bunk; and who cares?

The Raptors were well-chronicled over all-star weekend, with Casey the all-star coach for the first time and DeRozan starting at home. And if someone looking for clickbait on an ESPN digital desk left Toronto out of a possible final matchup in some online poll, it doesn’t mean anything. Fans getting riled up over it speaks more to their insecurity than it does to any significant intentional slight of the Raptors.